ring, ring [Exemplary]

[Albert Wesker]

He reached the bottom of the stairs with only minor incident. The last two steps were submerged under water, casting the entire level into a knee-deep flood. Now that he had exited the stairs, he could faintly hear the sound from further ahead; the steady hissing of water from a burst pipe. Whatever had happened here had definitely taken its toll.

The dim lighting, combined with the water, made moving forward a prospect which rapidly grated on his nerves. It slowed him down doubly, on top of aggravating his injured state. The former was all too costly, in his current weakened state; he was all but certain he wouldn't survive the impending detonation if he failed to make it out of this place in time. The latter was just an irritant. He detested being in pain of this level. It was so...so human. Disgustingly, mind-wrenchingly, gut-churningly human.

Wading slowly through the dank corridor, he was forced to keep one arm braced against the wall. Unable to see beneath the murky water, and gauge his footing properly, it would have been insanity otherwise. He continually encountered loose bits of rubble and debris, from the walls and ceiling. Bits of rock and metal, bullet casings and the bullets themselves, made slippery and treacherous with the addition of the disgusting liquid flooding this level. The only upside to it all was that anything else in here, if there was anything else to be found here, would be similarly slowed down and impeded. Small favors, and such an advantage he was reluctant to admit that he needed in his condition, but one he was far from unwilling to exploit to its utmost if the need arose. Mobility was a precious asset in an engagement, as he so loved to prove to his opponents.

A blown light flickered and sputtered overhead, with a crackle and pop. Sparks fizzled from it, and the smell of burning wires was still faintly detectable. Wesker grimaced. Whatever had happened here had been only recently. Quite spectacular that he'd managed to sleep through it. Or remain unconscious through it, perhaps. It also raised an important question, that he had been puzzling over since he awoke: how did he get here? The last thing he could recall before this, he had been...elsewhere. In the middle of that white expanse. The fountain. The Omniverse...yes. Defeated there, in such an ignominious and infuriating fashion, by that damnable double agent. Ada Wong.

Just recalling that memory, and the ludicrous impossibility of him being beaten in a straight fight. He had been weakened, certainly — terribly weakened, barely up to par with even his human capabilities before the viral injection all those years ago — but he had been earnestly trying. Fighting with all the fury and effort he ever had, and still...defeat had been handed to him. The specifics eluded him, no matter how hard he tried to call them back to mind. He had burst from the fetid, bloody waters of the fountain, and assaulted that damnable witch, then...that was where things got fuzzy. Just a red haze of rage, and viciously pummeling, beating her, and then...blackness.

Then he had awoken here, wherever here was.

If he could just manage to figure out where he was and how he had arrived here, perhaps he could come that much closer to actually finding a way out of here in time. It was clearly some sort of underground research facility, from the layout he had observed on the map. The perplexing part was that he had seen no sign of any elevator or stairs leading upward, back to the surface, or to any aboveground facility or structure this place was connected to. It was as if it was isolated, wholly and completely, which was absurd. Certainly not impossible to do, of course, but extremely difficult and costly. Even then, if they could have done such a thing, there had to have been some way to get in, barring the emergency exit. The state of the place, falling apart and ready to detonate after what was presumably some sort of unplanned act of violence, was testament to that.

It left one of two possibilities, that Wesker could imagine right offhand.

One: Some sort of outbreak or failure of the experiments being conducted here, and the chaos here had erupted from that, the security forces stationed here overrun and the damage triggering the self-destruct systems to keep it contained.

Two: Some external force had invaded, causing damage in an attempt to silence the staff here and likely steal something. The self-destruct had been triggered in the violence either by accident, or intentionally, to cover their tracks.

It mattered little, and was just baseless conjecture without more clues to go on, of course...but it was something to occupy his aimless meandering down this partially flooded hall. Just a few paces ahead now he could see a weakly flickering light, hanging halfway out of its fixture in the ceiling, marking another intersection. Straight ahead there should be the armory and security offices. To the left he could hopefully reach the living areas. There was a doorway to the right, as well, though it was unlabeled on the map he had procured. Curious, to be sure, but not something he had the luxury of investigating at the moment. He would give it a look if his searches elsewhere turned up fruitless. It would be a closer destination than traversing all the way back up to the original floor to check the storage rooms. Time was rapidly running out, as the droning voice of the automated system above announced helpfully: only seven and a half minutes left, now.

He reached the intersection, pausing with his hand on the corner of the wall. For a precious few seconds he looked down the hall both ways open to him, weighing his options. Three places to check. He would work clockwise, to try and keep things efficient. To the left, for now. To the living quarters.